Remarks by Gregory R. Anrig, Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, at the Boston 351 Conference on the Condition of the City, 1981 April 21

/
A TALE OF "TWO CITIES:
CITY SCHOOLS CAN MAKE IT IN MASSACHUSETTS
Gregory R. Anrig
Commissioner of Education
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
This has been a bad year for the Boston Public Schools.
The firing of Superintendent Wood, a three-week bus strike, the
jailing of a s chool committee member for extortion, a budget
impasse with the Mayor that threatens for months to close down
the school system and ends up in court, a rU'1away level of budget
expenditures requiring abrupt personnel cutbacks and school
clOSings, enactment of Proposition 2 1/2, and most recently the
tragic death of Interim Superintendent Paul Kennedy. If ~ ara
at the poi.nt of dispair, imagine hovi the p3rents, students, and
school perso,nel feel.
I have heard some say the system is hopeless and oU;lht to
be allowed to sink. Some say the only chance for reform is for
Pres entation ;'0 the Boston 351 Conferenc e on the Condition of
the City, "Tensi.ons, Challenges, and Opportunitiesll
, sponsor­~
d by the John F. Kennedy Librd ry, Boston, Massachusetts,
April 21, 1981.
-2-
disaster to strike first. Some don't care at all. I categorically
reject these positions. The parents and children of this City
deserve better. They have a right to a decent public education,
a right both legal and moral. And we have a responsibility
individually, and collectively as a Commonwealth, to see that
decent public education is provided children of the State's
capitol city.
Is this an impossible task? Let's look elsewhere in
Massachusetts for our answer. We won't do as a City Hall
spokesman did earlier this year and unfairly compare Boston's
schools with Brown and Nichols or Phillips Andover. It is fair, .
however, to compare the Boston Public Schools with our next
largest ci ty school district Springfield.
Let's look at why such a comparison is fair:
Both cities serve a diverse student population.
Fifty percent of the school enrollment in
Springfield is minority; 64% of the school
enrollment in Boston is minority. Both school
systems serve large numbers of Hispanic
*
*
*
,
-3-
students with limited English-speaking ability.
The prOportion of needy children (as defined by
eligibility for free or reduced price lunches
under federal guidelines) represents a large
majority of the students 'in both cities.
Both cities desegregated their schools under
court orders in 1974, orders which the elected
officials of both cities opposed fiercely.
Both cities must operate under the same state
and federal education laws. They must comply
with the same mandates in areas such as special
education, transitional bilingual education, and
vocational education.
Boston received apprOXimat ely 44% of its
educational expenditures from the s tate in 1980;
Springfield received about 58%. The remainder
fans primarily on the loca l property tax and
both cities rank closely on the measure of
equalized property valuati on per c apita .
,
-4-
* Both cities have elected school committees,
subject to some control by a mayor and city
council;
* Springfield and Boston operate under the ~ame
state collective bargaining law for school
employees. (In fact, Springfield had a 14-day
teacher strike last fall.)
There are two major differences between public schools
in Springfield and Boston. The first i.s the size of school
enrollment 26,000 in Springfield and reportedly 64,000
- in Boston. I don't feel this makes comparison invalid, but it is
a di fference which rightfully should be recognized.
The s econd and most significant difference is in
educational results.
You all are aware of reports on test scores in Boston.
The trends are mixed spotty gains occasionally,
discouraging declines more often. Over a four-year period
(1975-76 to 1978-79) for instance, median reading achi.evement
,
-5-
scores of Boston students in grades 4, 6 and 9 have continued
to decline, compared to national percentile norms on the same
test. Even more discCXJraging, there is a consisIent pattern of
comparatively poorer performance the longer one is in school.
Eleventh graders perform at a lower percentile level than do
students in the elementary grades.
Some would say such scores are typical of urban school
districts across the country. Not so in Springfield. During
J
the same four-year period, Springfield students in grades 4
and 6 steadily increased their median reading performance.
Ninth graders decreased only slightly to just under grade level
on national norms but they still score much higher (54th
percentile) than Boston's 9th graders (36th percentile). While
Black and Hispanic students in Boston showed slight improvement
during this period, the scores of Black and Hispanic students
in Springfield improved significantly and steadily over the same
four years. Moreover, this improved performance of
Springfield students (White, Black and Hispanic) held true in
mathematics, language, science and social studies as well as
in reading. Last year, sixth graders in Springfield scored
-6-
one month above the national norm on the entire Comprehensive
Test of Basic Skinsl *
Let's look at dropout rates for the two cities. Twenty-six
percent of BostOn's high school pupils dropped out in 1979-80.
In Springfield the figure was only 11 'Yo. Of·those who entered
ninth grade in 1976, only half graduated four years later in
Boston compared to almost two-thirds in Springfield. In other
words, Springfield is holding on to more students and educating
them better (based on test scores) than is Boston.
My purpose in presenting these statistics is not to add
to criticism of the Boston Public Schools. I have too much
respect for the many dedicated people who are trying their best
to help Boston's children get a fair break educationally.
Rather, my purpose is to see what can be learned from
Springfield that can free these dedicated people from the
system's weaknesses which have plagued Boston's schools
for too many years.
*The Boston Public Schools use the Metropolitan Achievement
Test and the Springfield Public Schools use the Comprehensive
Test of Ba":;lc Skills. Comparisons are based on national per­centile
norms for each test.
,
-7 -
Based on my years of worki.ng closely with the school
systems of both cities, let me offer some indi.vidual views as
Commissioner of Educati.on on why the results of education
di ffer so markedly in both cities.
Conti.nuity of Skilled Leadershi.p. Perhaps the si.ngle,
most important difference between the two school systems has
been the continuity of skilled leadership in the Superintendency.
In the ten years I .have been working with Boston, there have
been four superintendents, two acting superintendents, and now
a new superintendent to be appoi.nted in June. A total of seven
persons will have served as chief executive officer during this
period.
In Springfield, Dr. J a c k Deady has been Superintendent
of Schools since 1966. An extra ordinarily competent educator,
he has been able to set a tone and d i r e ction for the school
system, earn credi.bility with the public, and establish
standards not only for the s chools but for his relationships
with the School Committee and Mayor(s).
Dr. Deady has had enorm ous p r essures on him and has
had to compromise, a s is true of all urban super intendents.
-8-
But he has not had to confront the kinds of compromises his
counterparts in Boston faced to be appointed or to keep their
positions. The decisions of successive school committees in
Boston not to reapPoint Bill Orhenberger, Bill Leary and
Marion Fahey, and to fire Bob Wood have created a leadership
climate where dominance is concentrated in a school committee
majori ty of three votes.
This climate has permeated the term of office of each
superintendent I have known. It is the breeding ground o f
compromises on personnel and administrative decisions.
These properly should be beyond the influence of a pol icymaking
school committee which is operating in accordance with even
the most bas ic principles of sound management.
The most important lesson to learn from Springfield
is the importance of securing and holding on to competent
leadership in the superintendency. With a new Boston
superintendent to be appointed in June, that person and all
constituencies interested in improving education in Boston
have a common interest in reaching out to each other.
. /
. .
-9-
A broad base of mutual support must be created which no
future school committee will be tempted to abuse.
This makes statutory amendment of Chapter 333 of the
Acts of 1978 imperative. The contract term for Superintendent
must be made at least four years, at a salary set by the School
Committee rather than the statute, termination should be only
for just cause, and the Superintendent's authority over personnel
appointments, promotions and terminations must be clarified and
strengthened.
Role of the School Committee. The Springfi.eld SchooL
Committee is comprised of seven members, elected at large
to four-year terms on a staggered basis. In contrast, the
five-person Boston School Committee i.s elected all at once
every two years.
The change of one seat in this biennial election can
and has shifted the Committee's majority with immediate
i.mpact upon operations of the schools. This lack of stability
in Boston frequently has a whi.psaw effect upon pol icy and the
I schools. It also creates a political climate in which the
t members always are running for reelection . Fundraising,
- 10.,...
the political implications of each decision~ and (in the past)
patronage too often have become preoccupations of the
officeholders.
The 'Boston School Committee should be enlarged and
should have staggered four-year terms. As has been seen at
times in Springfield, such a structure does not guarantee a
good school committee. But it increases the chances for better
school committee/superintendent leadership of the school
system.
Structural change alone is not enough. Behavioral
change is even more important. ' But realistically, that can't
be imposed from the outside. It must be created by the kinds
of p eople electeq and by t he interaction of the citizen board
and its ex ecu ti ve officer. The search committee appointed to
recommend the new Boston superi.n tendent should pay special
attention to the record of c a ndidates in providing strong
leadership and guidance to citizen boards, for that is
~--
desperately needed i.n Boston.
One b ehavioral change ~ be controlled. In a single
12-month peri od, the Boston School Committee held more
- 11
meetings than the Springfield School Committee (28 vs. 22).
If the Boston School Committee met less often, it might do -a
better job of focusing on its policymaki.ng role and free its
staff to concentrate on improving management of the schools.
Even more significant, the Springfield School
Committee held only· five executive sessions (for other than
collective bargaining) during this year compared to 21
executive sessions by the Boston School Committee!
The media and the . Boston League of Women Voters
should help to assure full compliance by the Boston School
Committee with the Open Meeting Law. Public business
should be done in public. The Attorney General can prosecute
violations of the Open Meeting Law but well-documented
complaints are essential for such action. School Committee
members themselves should "blow the whi.stle" on improper
executi ve sessions. The statewide media have the resources
to investigate and contest violations of the Open Meeti.ng Law.
Frankly., they have been less aggressive than some of the
state's suburban and rural newspapers in taking school officials
/
- 12 -
,
to task for closed door sessions. At no time was this more
obvious in Boston than in the several events of last August
leading up to Dr. Wood's dismissal.
Role of the Mayor. In Springfield, the Mayor is
Chairman of the School Committee. Twenty-eight cities in
Massachusetts provide for the mayor to be the school committee
chairman (25) or a member (3). This includes all the largest
cities of the Commonwealth eXcept Boston. It has some
disadvantage s , to be sure, but it also forces a mayor to be
continually informed about school policies and to be recorded
on important school decisions. It involves him directly in all
stages. of school budget decisions.
The main advantage of a mayor serving directly on the
school committee is that he cannot absolve himself of
responsibility for the public schools. The school committee
cannot be scapegoated, as in Boston, for every increase in
. the tax rate. *
*In Fiscal Year 1980, for instance, the Boston School Depart­ment
budget represented only 33% of the total City of Boston
budget, and 44% of this school budget was rei.mbursed by state.
education aid to the City. Boston's high tax rate largely is the
product of munici.pal spending, not school spending.
/
13 -
In Springfield, I have worked with Mayors Sullivan and
Dimauro. Mayor Sullivan was strongly opposed to the State­ordered
desegregation plan in 1974. But once it was affirmed
by the State Supreme Judicial Court, he was determined that
the plan would be carried out peacefully under City leadership.
He committed himself to carrying out the law and even
personally rode a school bus on opening day in 1974. More
recently, Mayor Dimauro campaigned v igorously and publicly
last fall against Proposition 21/2. He was a s t rong spokesman
for his ci.ty on the devastating impact Proposition 21/2 would
have on Springfield's schools as well as on its municipal
services. The success of Springfield's schools, at least i.n
part, is a product of the involvement and support of these
mayors.
J believe serious consideration should be given in the
future to having the Mayor be a member, ex officio, of the
Boston School Committee. The future of the City and of its
public schools are inextricably connected. So, too, should be
their govemance.
- 14-
Accountability. Compared to Boston, I would describe
the Springfield School System as an "open" one. It -really
works at keeping the public informed and finding ways to
involve parents and taxpayers in schools and school programs.
The Springfield School Department has one of the staters best
Public Information Officers and one of the state's most able
Directors of Research. Springfield received a Presidential
Award for its extensive program of school volunteers, including
a vigorous corps of elderly volunteers. (In the area of school
volunteers, I would add, Boston too deserves praise.) The
Springfield business community and community organizations
have been consistent and positive forces over the years for
good education in the public schools.
The school principals I have met in Springfield are
highly competent. Their authority is clear and they know they
are professionally accountable to the Superintendent. Some
of the most imaginative uses of state and federal grant funds I
have seen have been in Springfield Schools - - - magnet
programs, extra instructional support, alternative discipline
programs fo r j unio r high schools, even popular salad bars in
the hi.gh school lunch program!
/
- 15 -
In contrast with past traditions in Boston, professional
advancement in Spring'field's schools i.s based primarily on­competent
performance. While individual school committee
members in Springfield may at times attempt to venture into
personnel matters, this has not been a common practice as in
Boston. There is not the pervasive tradition in Springfield of
school committee sponsorship of promotions, which leaves
such a lasting residue of uncertainty among good school
personnel in Boston.
With all respect to the current Boston School Committee,
I believe most present members deplore patronage practices of
the past. But there remains a need to purge this tradition in
people's minds, in and out of the system, through formal policy
or law and meticulous adherence to fai r personnel practices,
diSCiplined with integrity by a strong superintendent.
Springfield demonstrates that it can be done. Boston needs to
establish that track record of credibility.
Fiscal and Educational Management. No issue has been
publicly criticized more continuously and broadly than has the
/
- 16 -
management of the Boston Public Schools. The cause has
been blamed by its school committees on state mandates, the
courts, the mayor, the unions, desegregation, and almost
every institution except the one most responsible - - -
the Boston School Committee.
Springfield has had to comply with the same laws and
pol i tical forces. Let's look at some comparisons: *
•
o
•
Per pupil costs in Boston exceed those in
Springfield in every cateogry.
Regular Education
Special Education
Bi.lingual Education
Occupational Education
Boston
2,616
4,233
2,421
3,136
Springfi.eld
1,690
2,687
1,487
2,466
(These dispari ties also are true in comparing
Boston with the other major city school
districts of Massachusetts.)
The number of pupi Is per administrator is 73: 1
in Boston and 209: 1 in Springfield •
The number of pupils per teacher is 14: 1 in
Boston and 18: 1 in Springfield.
'" All data a re based on official reports submitted by the Boston and
Springfield School Departments to the State Department of Ed-ucation
for the 1979-80 school ye~r.
• •
•
•
•
•
17 -
The average teacher salary in Boston (1979-80)
is $21,401 compared to $16,973 i.n Spri.ngfield.
Springfield provides occupational education for
50% of its students compared to only 36% in
Boston.
Almost 24% of the pupils in Boston have been
placed in special education compared to only
14% in Springfield. Special education
expenditures represent more than 16% of the
Boston school budget but only 11 .5% of the
much smaller Springfield budget.
Although both cities have experienced similar
enrollment declines, Boston's school budget
increased almost 2 1/2 times faster than
Springfield's from Fiscal Year 1978 to Fiscal
Year 1980.
Total school expenditures in 1979-80, including
federal funds,were almost $285 million in Boston
and just over $66 million in Springfield. Boston
,.
- 18-
has 2 1/2 times as many students as Springfield
but spends more than four times as much.
The conclusion from these .fac~nescapable.
Educational costs in Boston are exorbitant and must be brought
under control. These costs are an unfair burden not only for
the Boston taxpayer, but for all the taxpayers of the state who
bear almost half these costs through the state aid provided to
Boston.
The Boston School Committee must take immediate
action to establish a financial accounting and control system.
This is not a complex task and has been recommended in
several management consultant reports . If the present fiscal
staff of the School Department are unable or unwi lUng to do this,
they should be replaced.
The Boston School Committee should create a financial
evaluation committee, in cooperation with the Trilateral Council
or "The Vault". These designees should be business leaders
who would publicly report on the financial condition
of the school system. Ideally the s ame group also
/
- 19 -
should evaluate municipal fiscal procedures, but the School
Commi ttee should" not wait for this.
If the Boston School Committee and its new
Superintendent do not take dramatic action to correct
unjustifiable expenditures by early in Fiscal Year 1982, I will
recommend that the State Board of Education propose to the
Legislature the imposition of statuto ry controls to do it for
them.
The issues in Boston are not state mandates, or
desegregation or the courts o r concentrations of poor,
Black or Hispanic chi ldren. Springfield has the same
challenges and is meeting them, with better educational
results and lower costs . The issue is leadership.
Some structural change is needed and I have indicated
my views on that. But real change depends on people - - -
the person who will be s elected as Superintendent of Schools
in June, the people who wi.ll run for and be elected to the
School Committee next year, and the citizens of Boston who
wi.ll decide what they will demand of their representatives and
of their City.
,
- 20-
I propose that a Coalition fo r Better Schools be formed
by citizens of Boston. It should be formed by all existing
citizen groups in Boston, from district advisory committees
to the South Boston Marshals! Unity in the search for quality
must replace old divisions over desegregation.
*
*
*
I propose that the Coalition aggressively seek
out and support strong candidates for the
School Committee.
I propose that the Coalition set some high
standards for the school system to achieve
realistically drawn from the example
of Springfield.
And, I propose that the Coalition organize to
hold all school and City officials accountable
for achieving those standards.
Those of us in government, business, and higher
education can and will help. But in the long run, to borrow
from history, this must be a crusade of the people of Boston,
b.'t. the peo::>le of Boston and for the people of Boston.
- 21 -
It is tough to make democracy really work. But it does
when we all get on with the job of doing it. Democracy was
gi.ven birth in this country by a revolt of citizens in this City
and its environs. Government didn't do it, citizens did. A
new citizen "revolution" is needed today i.n Boston. Our
children, your children, deserve no less.

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

Copyright restrictions may apply. Visit blogs.umb.edu/archives/about/rights-and-reproductions for more information.

Full Text

/
A TALE OF "TWO CITIES:
CITY SCHOOLS CAN MAKE IT IN MASSACHUSETTS
Gregory R. Anrig
Commissioner of Education
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
This has been a bad year for the Boston Public Schools.
The firing of Superintendent Wood, a three-week bus strike, the
jailing of a s chool committee member for extortion, a budget
impasse with the Mayor that threatens for months to close down
the school system and ends up in court, a rU'1away level of budget
expenditures requiring abrupt personnel cutbacks and school
clOSings, enactment of Proposition 2 1/2, and most recently the
tragic death of Interim Superintendent Paul Kennedy. If ~ ara
at the poi.nt of dispair, imagine hovi the p3rents, students, and
school perso,nel feel.
I have heard some say the system is hopeless and oU;lht to
be allowed to sink. Some say the only chance for reform is for
Pres entation ;'0 the Boston 351 Conferenc e on the Condition of
the City, "Tensi.ons, Challenges, and Opportunitiesll
, sponsor­~
d by the John F. Kennedy Librd ry, Boston, Massachusetts,
April 21, 1981.
-2-
disaster to strike first. Some don't care at all. I categorically
reject these positions. The parents and children of this City
deserve better. They have a right to a decent public education,
a right both legal and moral. And we have a responsibility
individually, and collectively as a Commonwealth, to see that
decent public education is provided children of the State's
capitol city.
Is this an impossible task? Let's look elsewhere in
Massachusetts for our answer. We won't do as a City Hall
spokesman did earlier this year and unfairly compare Boston's
schools with Brown and Nichols or Phillips Andover. It is fair, .
however, to compare the Boston Public Schools with our next
largest ci ty school district Springfield.
Let's look at why such a comparison is fair:
Both cities serve a diverse student population.
Fifty percent of the school enrollment in
Springfield is minority; 64% of the school
enrollment in Boston is minority. Both school
systems serve large numbers of Hispanic
*
*
*
,
-3-
students with limited English-speaking ability.
The prOportion of needy children (as defined by
eligibility for free or reduced price lunches
under federal guidelines) represents a large
majority of the students 'in both cities.
Both cities desegregated their schools under
court orders in 1974, orders which the elected
officials of both cities opposed fiercely.
Both cities must operate under the same state
and federal education laws. They must comply
with the same mandates in areas such as special
education, transitional bilingual education, and
vocational education.
Boston received apprOXimat ely 44% of its
educational expenditures from the s tate in 1980;
Springfield received about 58%. The remainder
fans primarily on the loca l property tax and
both cities rank closely on the measure of
equalized property valuati on per c apita .
,
-4-
* Both cities have elected school committees,
subject to some control by a mayor and city
council;
* Springfield and Boston operate under the ~ame
state collective bargaining law for school
employees. (In fact, Springfield had a 14-day
teacher strike last fall.)
There are two major differences between public schools
in Springfield and Boston. The first i.s the size of school
enrollment 26,000 in Springfield and reportedly 64,000
- in Boston. I don't feel this makes comparison invalid, but it is
a di fference which rightfully should be recognized.
The s econd and most significant difference is in
educational results.
You all are aware of reports on test scores in Boston.
The trends are mixed spotty gains occasionally,
discouraging declines more often. Over a four-year period
(1975-76 to 1978-79) for instance, median reading achi.evement
,
-5-
scores of Boston students in grades 4, 6 and 9 have continued
to decline, compared to national percentile norms on the same
test. Even more discCXJraging, there is a consisIent pattern of
comparatively poorer performance the longer one is in school.
Eleventh graders perform at a lower percentile level than do
students in the elementary grades.
Some would say such scores are typical of urban school
districts across the country. Not so in Springfield. During
J
the same four-year period, Springfield students in grades 4
and 6 steadily increased their median reading performance.
Ninth graders decreased only slightly to just under grade level
on national norms but they still score much higher (54th
percentile) than Boston's 9th graders (36th percentile). While
Black and Hispanic students in Boston showed slight improvement
during this period, the scores of Black and Hispanic students
in Springfield improved significantly and steadily over the same
four years. Moreover, this improved performance of
Springfield students (White, Black and Hispanic) held true in
mathematics, language, science and social studies as well as
in reading. Last year, sixth graders in Springfield scored
-6-
one month above the national norm on the entire Comprehensive
Test of Basic Skinsl *
Let's look at dropout rates for the two cities. Twenty-six
percent of BostOn's high school pupils dropped out in 1979-80.
In Springfield the figure was only 11 'Yo. Of·those who entered
ninth grade in 1976, only half graduated four years later in
Boston compared to almost two-thirds in Springfield. In other
words, Springfield is holding on to more students and educating
them better (based on test scores) than is Boston.
My purpose in presenting these statistics is not to add
to criticism of the Boston Public Schools. I have too much
respect for the many dedicated people who are trying their best
to help Boston's children get a fair break educationally.
Rather, my purpose is to see what can be learned from
Springfield that can free these dedicated people from the
system's weaknesses which have plagued Boston's schools
for too many years.
*The Boston Public Schools use the Metropolitan Achievement
Test and the Springfield Public Schools use the Comprehensive
Test of Ba":;lc Skills. Comparisons are based on national per­centile
norms for each test.
,
-7 -
Based on my years of worki.ng closely with the school
systems of both cities, let me offer some indi.vidual views as
Commissioner of Educati.on on why the results of education
di ffer so markedly in both cities.
Conti.nuity of Skilled Leadershi.p. Perhaps the si.ngle,
most important difference between the two school systems has
been the continuity of skilled leadership in the Superintendency.
In the ten years I .have been working with Boston, there have
been four superintendents, two acting superintendents, and now
a new superintendent to be appoi.nted in June. A total of seven
persons will have served as chief executive officer during this
period.
In Springfield, Dr. J a c k Deady has been Superintendent
of Schools since 1966. An extra ordinarily competent educator,
he has been able to set a tone and d i r e ction for the school
system, earn credi.bility with the public, and establish
standards not only for the s chools but for his relationships
with the School Committee and Mayor(s).
Dr. Deady has had enorm ous p r essures on him and has
had to compromise, a s is true of all urban super intendents.
-8-
But he has not had to confront the kinds of compromises his
counterparts in Boston faced to be appointed or to keep their
positions. The decisions of successive school committees in
Boston not to reapPoint Bill Orhenberger, Bill Leary and
Marion Fahey, and to fire Bob Wood have created a leadership
climate where dominance is concentrated in a school committee
majori ty of three votes.
This climate has permeated the term of office of each
superintendent I have known. It is the breeding ground o f
compromises on personnel and administrative decisions.
These properly should be beyond the influence of a pol icymaking
school committee which is operating in accordance with even
the most bas ic principles of sound management.
The most important lesson to learn from Springfield
is the importance of securing and holding on to competent
leadership in the superintendency. With a new Boston
superintendent to be appointed in June, that person and all
constituencies interested in improving education in Boston
have a common interest in reaching out to each other.
. /
. .
-9-
A broad base of mutual support must be created which no
future school committee will be tempted to abuse.
This makes statutory amendment of Chapter 333 of the
Acts of 1978 imperative. The contract term for Superintendent
must be made at least four years, at a salary set by the School
Committee rather than the statute, termination should be only
for just cause, and the Superintendent's authority over personnel
appointments, promotions and terminations must be clarified and
strengthened.
Role of the School Committee. The Springfi.eld SchooL
Committee is comprised of seven members, elected at large
to four-year terms on a staggered basis. In contrast, the
five-person Boston School Committee i.s elected all at once
every two years.
The change of one seat in this biennial election can
and has shifted the Committee's majority with immediate
i.mpact upon operations of the schools. This lack of stability
in Boston frequently has a whi.psaw effect upon pol icy and the
I schools. It also creates a political climate in which the
t members always are running for reelection . Fundraising,
- 10.,...
the political implications of each decision~ and (in the past)
patronage too often have become preoccupations of the
officeholders.
The 'Boston School Committee should be enlarged and
should have staggered four-year terms. As has been seen at
times in Springfield, such a structure does not guarantee a
good school committee. But it increases the chances for better
school committee/superintendent leadership of the school
system.
Structural change alone is not enough. Behavioral
change is even more important. ' But realistically, that can't
be imposed from the outside. It must be created by the kinds
of p eople electeq and by t he interaction of the citizen board
and its ex ecu ti ve officer. The search committee appointed to
recommend the new Boston superi.n tendent should pay special
attention to the record of c a ndidates in providing strong
leadership and guidance to citizen boards, for that is
~--
desperately needed i.n Boston.
One b ehavioral change ~ be controlled. In a single
12-month peri od, the Boston School Committee held more
- 11
meetings than the Springfield School Committee (28 vs. 22).
If the Boston School Committee met less often, it might do -a
better job of focusing on its policymaki.ng role and free its
staff to concentrate on improving management of the schools.
Even more significant, the Springfield School
Committee held only· five executive sessions (for other than
collective bargaining) during this year compared to 21
executive sessions by the Boston School Committee!
The media and the . Boston League of Women Voters
should help to assure full compliance by the Boston School
Committee with the Open Meeting Law. Public business
should be done in public. The Attorney General can prosecute
violations of the Open Meeting Law but well-documented
complaints are essential for such action. School Committee
members themselves should "blow the whi.stle" on improper
executi ve sessions. The statewide media have the resources
to investigate and contest violations of the Open Meeti.ng Law.
Frankly., they have been less aggressive than some of the
state's suburban and rural newspapers in taking school officials
/
- 12 -
,
to task for closed door sessions. At no time was this more
obvious in Boston than in the several events of last August
leading up to Dr. Wood's dismissal.
Role of the Mayor. In Springfield, the Mayor is
Chairman of the School Committee. Twenty-eight cities in
Massachusetts provide for the mayor to be the school committee
chairman (25) or a member (3). This includes all the largest
cities of the Commonwealth eXcept Boston. It has some
disadvantage s , to be sure, but it also forces a mayor to be
continually informed about school policies and to be recorded
on important school decisions. It involves him directly in all
stages. of school budget decisions.
The main advantage of a mayor serving directly on the
school committee is that he cannot absolve himself of
responsibility for the public schools. The school committee
cannot be scapegoated, as in Boston, for every increase in
. the tax rate. *
*In Fiscal Year 1980, for instance, the Boston School Depart­ment
budget represented only 33% of the total City of Boston
budget, and 44% of this school budget was rei.mbursed by state.
education aid to the City. Boston's high tax rate largely is the
product of munici.pal spending, not school spending.
/
13 -
In Springfield, I have worked with Mayors Sullivan and
Dimauro. Mayor Sullivan was strongly opposed to the State­ordered
desegregation plan in 1974. But once it was affirmed
by the State Supreme Judicial Court, he was determined that
the plan would be carried out peacefully under City leadership.
He committed himself to carrying out the law and even
personally rode a school bus on opening day in 1974. More
recently, Mayor Dimauro campaigned v igorously and publicly
last fall against Proposition 21/2. He was a s t rong spokesman
for his ci.ty on the devastating impact Proposition 21/2 would
have on Springfield's schools as well as on its municipal
services. The success of Springfield's schools, at least i.n
part, is a product of the involvement and support of these
mayors.
J believe serious consideration should be given in the
future to having the Mayor be a member, ex officio, of the
Boston School Committee. The future of the City and of its
public schools are inextricably connected. So, too, should be
their govemance.
- 14-
Accountability. Compared to Boston, I would describe
the Springfield School System as an "open" one. It -really
works at keeping the public informed and finding ways to
involve parents and taxpayers in schools and school programs.
The Springfield School Department has one of the staters best
Public Information Officers and one of the state's most able
Directors of Research. Springfield received a Presidential
Award for its extensive program of school volunteers, including
a vigorous corps of elderly volunteers. (In the area of school
volunteers, I would add, Boston too deserves praise.) The
Springfield business community and community organizations
have been consistent and positive forces over the years for
good education in the public schools.
The school principals I have met in Springfield are
highly competent. Their authority is clear and they know they
are professionally accountable to the Superintendent. Some
of the most imaginative uses of state and federal grant funds I
have seen have been in Springfield Schools - - - magnet
programs, extra instructional support, alternative discipline
programs fo r j unio r high schools, even popular salad bars in
the hi.gh school lunch program!
/
- 15 -
In contrast with past traditions in Boston, professional
advancement in Spring'field's schools i.s based primarily on­competent
performance. While individual school committee
members in Springfield may at times attempt to venture into
personnel matters, this has not been a common practice as in
Boston. There is not the pervasive tradition in Springfield of
school committee sponsorship of promotions, which leaves
such a lasting residue of uncertainty among good school
personnel in Boston.
With all respect to the current Boston School Committee,
I believe most present members deplore patronage practices of
the past. But there remains a need to purge this tradition in
people's minds, in and out of the system, through formal policy
or law and meticulous adherence to fai r personnel practices,
diSCiplined with integrity by a strong superintendent.
Springfield demonstrates that it can be done. Boston needs to
establish that track record of credibility.
Fiscal and Educational Management. No issue has been
publicly criticized more continuously and broadly than has the
/
- 16 -
management of the Boston Public Schools. The cause has
been blamed by its school committees on state mandates, the
courts, the mayor, the unions, desegregation, and almost
every institution except the one most responsible - - -
the Boston School Committee.
Springfield has had to comply with the same laws and
pol i tical forces. Let's look at some comparisons: *
•
o
•
Per pupil costs in Boston exceed those in
Springfield in every cateogry.
Regular Education
Special Education
Bi.lingual Education
Occupational Education
Boston
2,616
4,233
2,421
3,136
Springfi.eld
1,690
2,687
1,487
2,466
(These dispari ties also are true in comparing
Boston with the other major city school
districts of Massachusetts.)
The number of pupi Is per administrator is 73: 1
in Boston and 209: 1 in Springfield •
The number of pupils per teacher is 14: 1 in
Boston and 18: 1 in Springfield.
'" All data a re based on official reports submitted by the Boston and
Springfield School Departments to the State Department of Ed-ucation
for the 1979-80 school ye~r.
• •
•
•
•
•
17 -
The average teacher salary in Boston (1979-80)
is $21,401 compared to $16,973 i.n Spri.ngfield.
Springfield provides occupational education for
50% of its students compared to only 36% in
Boston.
Almost 24% of the pupils in Boston have been
placed in special education compared to only
14% in Springfield. Special education
expenditures represent more than 16% of the
Boston school budget but only 11 .5% of the
much smaller Springfield budget.
Although both cities have experienced similar
enrollment declines, Boston's school budget
increased almost 2 1/2 times faster than
Springfield's from Fiscal Year 1978 to Fiscal
Year 1980.
Total school expenditures in 1979-80, including
federal funds,were almost $285 million in Boston
and just over $66 million in Springfield. Boston
,.
- 18-
has 2 1/2 times as many students as Springfield
but spends more than four times as much.
The conclusion from these .fac~nescapable.
Educational costs in Boston are exorbitant and must be brought
under control. These costs are an unfair burden not only for
the Boston taxpayer, but for all the taxpayers of the state who
bear almost half these costs through the state aid provided to
Boston.
The Boston School Committee must take immediate
action to establish a financial accounting and control system.
This is not a complex task and has been recommended in
several management consultant reports . If the present fiscal
staff of the School Department are unable or unwi lUng to do this,
they should be replaced.
The Boston School Committee should create a financial
evaluation committee, in cooperation with the Trilateral Council
or "The Vault". These designees should be business leaders
who would publicly report on the financial condition
of the school system. Ideally the s ame group also
/
- 19 -
should evaluate municipal fiscal procedures, but the School
Commi ttee should" not wait for this.
If the Boston School Committee and its new
Superintendent do not take dramatic action to correct
unjustifiable expenditures by early in Fiscal Year 1982, I will
recommend that the State Board of Education propose to the
Legislature the imposition of statuto ry controls to do it for
them.
The issues in Boston are not state mandates, or
desegregation or the courts o r concentrations of poor,
Black or Hispanic chi ldren. Springfield has the same
challenges and is meeting them, with better educational
results and lower costs . The issue is leadership.
Some structural change is needed and I have indicated
my views on that. But real change depends on people - - -
the person who will be s elected as Superintendent of Schools
in June, the people who wi.ll run for and be elected to the
School Committee next year, and the citizens of Boston who
wi.ll decide what they will demand of their representatives and
of their City.
,
- 20-
I propose that a Coalition fo r Better Schools be formed
by citizens of Boston. It should be formed by all existing
citizen groups in Boston, from district advisory committees
to the South Boston Marshals! Unity in the search for quality
must replace old divisions over desegregation.
*
*
*
I propose that the Coalition aggressively seek
out and support strong candidates for the
School Committee.
I propose that the Coalition set some high
standards for the school system to achieve
realistically drawn from the example
of Springfield.
And, I propose that the Coalition organize to
hold all school and City officials accountable
for achieving those standards.
Those of us in government, business, and higher
education can and will help. But in the long run, to borrow
from history, this must be a crusade of the people of Boston,
b.'t. the peo::>le of Boston and for the people of Boston.
- 21 -
It is tough to make democracy really work. But it does
when we all get on with the job of doing it. Democracy was
gi.ven birth in this country by a revolt of citizens in this City
and its environs. Government didn't do it, citizens did. A
new citizen "revolution" is needed today i.n Boston. Our
children, your children, deserve no less.